By Alejandro Rojas, CNN • Updated 7th February 2021
Hurricane season starts in June. Season’s end in November. Could a third come in December?
In nature, the winter of 2017-2018 that brought significant tropical action, as well as below average sea surface temperatures and above average oceanic and atmospheric temperatures, have been dubbed “The Winter That Wasn’t.”
But such a “winter” has many parallels to a winter season, and will definitely have strong messages of hurricane season:
1. Ready for action: Making a preemptive strike before a hurricane is a critical building block for preventing damage. Even years with no hurricanes have a stronger chance of developing in the future than years that do.
The 2015 season saw that; that year, back-to-back storms, Gina and Bonnie, came ashore on September 4th and 5th. Since 1970, tropical storms have developed between landfall and six days after landfall and those storms have developed to tropical storm status or higher only five times during that span.
As Tropical Storm Nate rumbles toward the Southeast, its residents must prepare for possible damage.
During the last storm (Gina), Hurricanes Floyd and Dennis struck the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region. Many costly hurricanes have emerged after the holiday season, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which made landfall just two days after Christmas Eve, and Florida’s 2004 season, which saw four intense storms develop just a week after Thanksgiving.
So are we too early to call hurricane season?